Illegal characters (left) paired with their standard counterparts.

Is it illegal to attempt to display Chinese characters on a low-resolution screen? That's one interpretation of a Hunan man's complaint about his Nokia mobile phone. Here's Law Weekly's breathless account from its 4 June issue:

Have you ever heard of a phone that has more than 30 incorrect characters? Recently, this weirdness happened to Mr. Zhang of Xiangtan, Hunan. And the phone that "produced" these typos was the famous international brand, Nokia! Mr. Zhang, who was once a Chinese teacher, believes that this infringes on consumer's interests, seriously harming the authority of Chinese characters and hurting the feelings of Chinese consumers.

Mr. Zhang wants to sue Nokia to get it to recall the "typo phone" and issue an open apology to all consumers.
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"I never imagined that such a basic error would appear on a famous international brand like Nokia." When Mr. Zhang started entering Chinese characters into an SMS, this reporter saw that the three middle horizontal lines of the 真 character had changed to two, while in 置 they had become a single vertical line. The 言 on the bottom of 警 was just a dot, a line, and a square, and was missing two horizontal lines. Then the reporter used Mr. Zhang's mobile to input 攀, 搏, 青, and 遭, and found that they were all short a few limbs.

Anyone who's had to read small text on a cell-phone screen or a poorly-designed web page has certainly run across similar problems (which may actually appear in the quoted article, depending on how your browser renders things). The left-hand characters in the above image, for example, were enlarged from a web-browser set to a small font size.

Even the phone - a 1200-yuan Nokia 1600 - is not unique in its character issues. Southeast Express unearthed a second case in Fuzhou, only this time the culprit was a low-end domestic brand - a 399-yuan Hisense - whose owner couldn't correctly write the characters 碧, 喜, or 贵.

Unfortunately, this technical solution to the problem of displaying complicated characters in a limited space might be illegal. From LW:

Xiao Jun, a law professor at Hunan Normal University, said that according to the National Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language, the standard spoken and written Chinese language used in information processing and information technology products shall be in conformity with the norms of the State [Article 15]. It it evident that Nokia has violated that law, and it should correct the mistaken characters as soon as possible. Second, according to the stipulations in the Law on Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests, Nokia's manufacturer's use of non-standard characters in its mobile phones violated the rights of consumers and is disrespectful to consumers and to the language and writing of China.

Similarly, SE found a government staffer in the Fuzhou Education Bureau who suggested that the phone manufacturers might be violating the Language Law.

More unfortunately, Nokia doesn't seem to be handling this PR crisis very skillfully. The LW investigation found a representative who explained that it was a question of resolution, but the company could not explain why the horizontal lines in 置 were replaced with a single vertical one. And in a follow-up story the next week, LW reported that Nokia refused to offer any further explanation.

Here's an op-ed that ran in The Beijing News on Monday that castigates Nokia's recalcitrance:

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When consumers and the media reported these errors to Nokia China, Nokia responded: "No comment." Furthermore, when the Hunan Provincial Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision Complaint Center conveyed to Nokia China the complaints it had received, there was still no response from Nokia. So one might ask, "Nokia, why are you so pig-headed?" Pig-headed (牛) here can be understood as Nokia's attitude that it can bully consumers with its size and care nothing for language errors.

Language and writing concerns the culture of a country, and at its root it concerns that country's ethnic and national dignity. Because of this, many countries, including our own, have implemented laws tailored to the standardization of the use of their own spoken and written language. For example, our country has implemented laws requiring good sold by foreign countries in China to be accompanied by a Chinese intruction manual; in actuality, this is protection of the dignity of culture as signified in language.

Certainly, a few language errors will not obstruct consumers' ability to use the mobile phone for communication, but if we look at this IT product against the breadth and frequency of information transmission, we will discover the dangers posed by a mobile phone that uses non-standard characters. For, through their continual use and widespread transmission, mobile phones have become an important language medium. Serious mistakes in the Chinese characters of this medium will misguide the public and bring harm to the serious cultural dignity of Chinese characters. For this reason, the National Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language clearly stipulates that "the standard spoken and written Chinese language used in information processing and information technology products shall be in conformity with the norms of the State." A Nokia mobile phone is a typical IT product; whatever the reason, there is no excuse for using non-standard or wrong Chinese characters. The data shows that Nokia sells huge numbers of mobile phones in China, millions of handsets sold to Chinese people every year. You can easily imagine the cultural violation posed by the mistaken Chinese characters in these phones. Regrettably, in the face of consumer complaints, media criticism, and even notification by the government, Nokia just doesn't care. Such an action harms the commercial reputation of an international brand, but even more, it is an offense to the cultural dignity and national feeling of China.

At present, Nokia sits atop the list of consumer complaints because of this "typo-gate." The manufacturer must make a swift decision to arrest the effects. For example, it could first issue a quick recall of all mobile phones that have errors in Chinese characters. Actions by its peers in the world market demonstrate that in matters of the dignity and national feeling of a country, the best choice for a business is to quickly recall all products with language mistakes to clearly demonstrate that it sincerely respects the dignity and feelings of another country. Second, it should work swiftly to uncover the source of the Chinese character errors and issue an open apology. Third, it should swiftly halt the distribution and sales of phones with similar problems until the problems have been completely cleared up.

And today, TBN ran a letter in response, from a civil servant from Hubei:

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Yes, to say that Nokia should apologize, and how it should apologize, is not the issue. The question is what to do if it doesn't apologize. For powerful companies, relying on consumers "voting with their feet" to change policy or actions is not highly effective. The government's oversight of the economy, markets, and companies is the key to resolving the issue. A night-watchman government on the one hand must guarantee companies' free operation and full competition, but on the other must also guarantee that consumers' rights, the law, and the dignity of the state is not infringed. For this reason, the government must take an active role in this matter. But the facts are that when consumers' complaints were turned over to Nokia, the Hunan Provincial Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision did not take any further steps, so Nokia is free to happily dissemble.

Evidently, when the products of a multinational corporation have problems, we cannot merely "persuade them to be good" by, for example, asking them to take measures to correct their errors. When the company reacts, then everyone is happy. Right now what is lacking is for the government to step in and take legal action. In this matter, if the government does not take a rigid posture, then I do not believe that Nokia will say anything at all.